Australia’s Federal Court has found that five Australian women who allege they were forced off a Qatar Airways flight by armed guards and forced to undergo physical examinations at Doha airport cannot sue the airline directly.
UK website, guardian.com, reports that in dismissing the case, Justice John Halley determined that the five women could instead re-file their claims for damages against Matar, a Qatar Airways-owned subsidiary engaged by the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority (QCAA) to run Doha airport.
The five women initiated the legal action seeking damages against the airline in 2022.
The Australian women were among more than a dozen women who were escorted off the Sydney-bound Qatar Airways aircraft at gunpoint by armed guards in 2020, at the height of the pandemic. A newborn baby had been found abandoned at Hamad international airport and so the women were taken to ambulances on the tarmac, no explanations given, and some were forced to submit to invasive gynaecological examinations to determine if they had recently given birth. Read the earlier report on the case here.
The court found that Qatar Airways could not be held responsible for the actions of the Qatari Police. The judge also noted that the airline, being state-owned, might claim sovereign immunity from the Australian Federal Court’s jurisdiction.
The women have now been required to pay the costs of Qatar Airways and the QCAA.
This is unlikely to be the end of the matter. The incident has already rebounded on Qatar Airways. The women sent Australian Transport Minister Catherine King a letter in July 2023, urging her not to grant the extra rights to QR, an airline that they termed “not fit to carry passengers around the globe”.
“It has not shown any regard for public safety, nor has the airline demonstrated that it is committed to preventing any similar violations of human rights from happening again. Instead, it has been adversarial and arrogant in its attitude to the few women who have stood up and asked for an apology, as well as sureties for safety for women whilst travelling with the airline.”
And the treatment of the women was cited by the Australian Minister of Transport, Catherine King, as having provided “context” for her decision to reject Qatar Airways’ application for more flight rights into Australia. King was reported in the Guardian, saying the Doha incident was “a factor” in the decision to block extra flights from Doha although “certainly it wasn’t the only factor”.
The women are free to go ahead and refile against Matar. But the five have already lodged an appeal against Halley’s judgment, hoping to pursue Qatar Airways and the QCAA directly.
“The applicants remain committed to pursuing their claims against Qatar Airways, Matar and the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority for the events which occurred on 2 October 2020 on the tarmac of Doha International Airport,” said the women’s lawyer, Daniel Sturzaker.
The incident highlighted how vulnerable travellers are when transiting in airports, where they are subject to the law governing that country.
